--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FUSION PAGE Mrs. Blowers Fusion Page You can find fractions and other math links here as well as spelling, grammar, and sites for reading.

DATES:
Monday Jan 20th............. PTO Mtg
Friday Jan 24th.................No School PD Day
Friday Feb 21st................PTO Fun Night 
Wednesday Feb 12th........4th/5th grade Field Trip to Van Andel Museum, Ford Museum &
                                                          a play at Ford Museum.
Friday February 28th........5th grade field trip: Symphony and tour Calvin College

Mrs. Blowers will be gone a few days in February:
Feb. 10th I will have a surgery on my foot. I will be out Monday - Thursday for sure, but I am hopeful I will be back on Friday the 14th!!
_________________________________________________________________



HOMEWORK: Students are to read the article and answer the "quiz" questions 1-8 and question 9. They were told to highlite and/or write the page number where the answer was found.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FUSION PAGE   Mrs. Blowers Fusion Page
You can find fractions and other math links here as well as spelling, grammar, and sites for reading.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

MATH:  Check out the Math Tab for fraction tutorials!!
    RTI: We continue to review these concepts. Each student has his /her personal goals and is monitoring these as well as doing continued practice of goals mastered. 
     Our new unit is multiplying and dividing fractions. This is a concept students find difficult to hold onto and need a lot of concrete practice with pictures and manipulatives as well as frequent review the remainder of the year. 
  Currently we have been learning the algorithm for multiplying fractions by a whole number and a fraction times a fraction. We are looking at it as repeated addition, solving as an equation, and modeling with playdough and drawing pictures. We are problem-solving to see what real life situations would be like using fractions in this way. Ex: recipes.


PLEASE have your kids work on their math facts!! They are able to do XTRAMATH at home on the computer in addition to flashcards and other practice activities.
  
READING
  Nonfiction is our focus for part of January. We will then be doing reading partnerships with students pairing up to read, discuss, and practice strategies with a partner reading the same book.

WRITING:
  The kids are pretty excited about our current writing piece. Each person chose a fruit or vegetable and must write a campaign speech to promote their fruit/vegie and get voted as the "Fruit or Vegetable of the Year". Students are researching their topic for the facts to write into a plan. They must then find a way to use these facts to promote their fruit/vegie in an interesting campaign speech. We discussed and looked at campaign slogans and the kids are also making slogans and posters to promote their topics. 

  Students are encouraged to bring in their fruit/vegetable if possible and even dress in a way that would promote it. I will be happy to help students get what is needed if necessary.
I will videotape these and share them out to you.

SCIENCE:   
We did a lot of review in class for the Forces and Motion Test. We took this on Tuesday and these have been sent home. We began our unit entitled "Objects in the Sky". Our first lessons are about what causes the seasons: 

1) The tilt of the Earth’s axis affects the amount of sunlight different locations receive.

2) The amount of the sun's light energy a particular region receives.

SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 15 test on Friday. I will send these home on Monday
Next week's skill is 'blends'. List 16 is under the SPELLING tab. and will come home on Monday.

If your child wants to play games/ practice tests, go to: Spelling City

Have a terrific weekend!